Ageless Dancers

Tonight was the Annual membership meeting of DANCERS OVER 40, a group I joined over three years ago and one in which I am gradually starting to make myself useful. It was a small turn out due to Rosh Hashanah but there were some glittering personnages in attendance including the legendary Marge Champion (pictured below with Larry Fuller).

I yakked with Fosse veteran Richard Korthaze

And our mate Richard Hillman, P.R. whiz and close friend of auntie Helen Reddy, was in talks with D040 president John Sefakis about handling future publicity for the group.

 Harvey Evans hawked his new book, a personal history by the original film cast of WEST SIDE STORY in which he appeared as a Jet.

Jonathan Cerullo and Mary Lou Barber told us of future events including "Balanchine-Broadway & Beyond" and the Legacy Awards in December which will be presented to Carol Lawrence, Lee Roy Reams, Larry Fuller, George Marcy & Norma Doggett-Bezwick.

Larry Fuller (choreographer of Evita, Sweeney Todd and On The 20th Century) talked of the April concert THE STORY OF OUR LIVES which will include a tribute to all the women who have appeared in productions of SWEET CHARITY over the years!!!

Joyce Nolen, Patti Mariano & Mary Lou Barber performed a medley including "Accentuate The Positive" and "In The Cool Cool Cool of the Evening".

I volunteered to do a party piece to close the show (accompanied on keyboards by David Hancock Turner), a piece of special material about dancers that I wrote with music by the brilliant Ron Creager and I'm happy to say it brought down the house. (Thanks for the pics, Jodie)
Larry Fuller immediately booked me for the April concert and I even had an offer to write for a new show some of the dancers are putting together.

Here I am with Karin Baker (42nd St), Joyce Nolen, Mary Lou Barber, Patti Mariano & DO40 President John Sefakis.

This is James Dybas. Fans of the original cast album of PACIFIC OVERTURES will know him as the French Ambassador ("Oui, detente!") and the old man in "Someone in a Tree".

 But the most extraordinary moment came when a lady quietly came up to me and said "Are you the one who wrote me the fan letter?" Indeed I was. Last year I saw a video of Carol Burnett's 1960s tv version of CALAMITY JANE and was totally bowled over by the sensational singing, dancing and comedy of a glamorous redhead named Beryl Towbin whose name I remembered from the original company of Jerome Robbins' BALLETS USA. Her performance in this tv special was worthy of an Emmy but she didn't appear to have followed it up with anything in the interim. I found an address for her on the internet and was astonished to find that she lived a mere three blocks from me! I wrote a gushy fan letter and sent it off but never received a reply so I assumed she'd never received it or perhaps it was someone else with the same name. Well, tonight I found out that not only had she received it but she personally tried to deliver a reply to the building where I'm subletting, only to be told that no such person as Tony Sheldon lived here! Oh my God, the MOUNTAINS of fan mail that might have gone astray!!! So that mystery is now solved and we were able to fall on each other and gush face to face. This is exactly why I joined this marvellous group and I'll be helping man their table at the Broadway Cares Flea Market this Sunday. Yay!!!